It's 2017! The fascinating future promised in the "You will" commercials of the 90s by AT&T. In case, you haven't watched these brialliant works of marketing, here they are in all their grainy, old-world glory:
All the things that seemed so far out of reach back then are not just possible today, but taken for granted. The other day, a client asked us if we used a certain platform to stay in sync with teams and clients working across multiple time zones. The question made us think about our martech stack (yes, it's a real term. See: http://chiefmartec.com/2015/06/21-marketing-technology-stacks-shared-stackies-awards/).
So, to answer the client's question about our platform, we don't just use one tool, we use several (all fairly inexpensive) in our martech stack to facilitate communication, collaboration, and content creation (we couldn't think of a C word for accounting, invoicing, and payroll so let's just group it under content for now, but we'll tell you about an app for that, too).
There's an app for that
In today's connected world, we do business with folks thousands of miles away, whom we may never meet in person. Yet, we manage to come together and create the things that drive business: brands, videos, apps, websites, content, ideas, etc. How do we do it? We leverage the power apps to run and grow our business. Here's a list of what we use:
1. Dropbox for file transfers
When we need to send large video or design files, we simply drop the files into a Dropbox folder and send a link. https://www.dropbox.com allows us collaborate internally as well as with our clients' in-house teams.
2. Slack for communication
https://slack.com makes communication for projects really easy. When we have remote teams collaborating on projects, we can set up channels corresponding to those projects and communicate effortlessly to make sure everyone is on the same page.
3. Trello for project management
https://trello.com makes managing projects a breeze. The most complicated project we've planned on Trello was a UX project that had multiple modules and multiple phases and we managed to keep it all together by breaking it up in Trello.
4. WordPress for web development
We create a lot of microsites and WordPress makes it easy to build and manage sites, particularly when those sites are designed to enable transactions or provide information. In fact, our latest business venture Startup51, an all-you-need-to-start-a-business site, is currently being developed in https://wordpress.com
5. InVision for web and mobile prototypes
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the world of user experience, a prototype is worth a thousand wireframes. With https://www.invisionapp.com, we can create prototypes at every stage of the process for review, testing, and approvals.
6. Waveapps for invoicing, accounting, and payroll
Wave is changing the way companies generate invoices and manage their books. This innovate app goes beyond allowing companies to manage their money, it actually makes it fun. And the software https://www.waveapps.com is free to use.
7. Hubspot for CRM, email, blogging, social, and more
Finally, we use Hubspot, a platform that combines over 25 apps for content creation, social media posts, analytics, email marketing, CRM, and more. Most of our site is built on https://www.hubspot.com. As a Hubspot agency partner, we also set up websites and inbound marketing programs for our clients so it's the one app we use the most.
What does your martech stack look like?
Now, that we've revealed our list of apps, we'd love to learn about what you're using. Are there any innovative services that we could benefit from? Let us know on Twitter or right here and if you found this post helpful, please share with your network.
